The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without the services of Olli Maatta for the next six weeks due to hand surgery. Justin Schultz is out indefinitely with a concussion right now. There are a lot of minutes to fill with those two out and that is assuming that other Penguins defenders don't get hurt. Even before these injuries Pittsburgh was rumored to be looking for defense help. I have taken a look around the league at potential UFA targets and just like any deadline some of these players look more appealing than others. Today I am going to look at some of the options I would stay away from.
Dmitry Kulikov
Kulikov was a long time Florida Panther who was recently traded to the Buffalo Sabres. Rumor has it that both Jason Botterill and Jason Karmanos have been taking in some Sabres games. Kulikov seems as logical of a target as any on the Buffalo roster. He is a defenseman and he is an unrestricted free agent.
He spent the beginning of the year recovering from an injury sustained when he was hit into a wide open bench door in October. This has limited him to only 33 games this year.
Injuries aside his overall sample in the NHL doesn't strike me as something the Penguins need to actively seek out and spend assets for. His snapshot is very underwhelming
The new HERO charts are context neutral which means the possession metrics on here are not relative based like they used to be. Kulikov's numbers aren't very good. Not only are the context neutral numbers not impressive, but his relative possession for the last three seasons is -2.96%. Both his raw and relative stats are lower than you'd like to see.
Offensively there is nothing of substance that would cause me to overlook the possession metrics. His scoring rates at 5v5 are not good enough to overcome the possession stuff. This isn't a Trevor Daley situation where Daley can and will produce despite some possession difficulties. In the last three seasons Daley's 5v5 points per 60 is 1.01 and Kulikov is 0.57.
Kulikov isn't going to clear out that net front area either
Kulikov makes 4.33M and Maatta makes 4.083M so financially the Penguins could make it work it's just that they shouldn't.
I would pass on this idea.
Johnny Oduya
The Dallas Stars have had an underwhelming season and as a result they are going to likely sell off some of their UFA parts instead of letting them walk for nothing. One candidate for a trade is defenseman Johnny Oduya.
In the past Oduya has played top four minutes and he has also been a part of two Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup championships. You can see how a general manger would like that prior experience when seeking out a rental. However, that was the past and not the present. Targeting Oduya would just be targeting a player because they are a veteran. Nothing about his current on-ice play merits a championship caliber team seeking out his services.
Again, this would be like acquiring another Trevor Daley, but without shedding a Rob Scuderi in the process and getting no offense. It doesn't make much sense.
Michael Stone
Staying with the theme of UFA defensemen who don't make a positive contribution with possession or offensive we will take a look at Michael Stone of the Arizona Coyotes. Stone also comes in the four million dollar range at exactly 4.0M.
His possession numbers on a HERO chart were never going to look great due to playing on the train wreck that is the Arizona Coyotes, but that is why we can supplement the neutral context with his relative Corsi percentage. On a very poor possession team he is a negative relative possession player. His relative CF% is -4.98%. He's on a bad team and he's still in the negative. Not a direction I would look in. His offensive impact is minimal.
If you're a team that needs some extra defensive depth you'd likely be better off saving your assets and using your best AHL option. Experience is overrated when current results are at or near replacement level.
Thanks for reading!
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